Drama in the Hood

Sunday night I heard a car speeding down my street, then I heard a massive bang. I didn't really think much of it but the dogs kept barking and shuffling around so I decided I better go out and see if everyone involved was OK. There were a heap of neighbours standing around as well as the driver and passenger of this vehicle:

Then I saw my car was not where I left it, parked on the grass verge in front of our house. It has been pushed back about 12 metres, which is impressive considering it was in first gear! He had lost control of his vehicle, hit a power pole and my car, and ended up in the parking bays across the road from my house.

I'm not sure if my car is repairable. I am sure the insurance company will let me know some time soon. It means that there will probably be no long camping trips for a while, as N's Honda Civic isn't big enough to fit both puppies and all our camping gear.

I was so pissed off about it at first I was ready to strangle the driver. He only lives down the road, so he was almost home. He was definately speeding - the speed limit is 50kph, there is no way that you do that much damage at 50.

DRIVE SAFE EVERYONE!

Weather Detectors

This photo of Barbie and Froufrou snuggling is from last winter.

You can tell that the weather is getting colder when the animals start curling up together, and when the dogs both want to be snuggled on the bed in the morning.

For the first time in months, Bender squeezed himself under the doonah this morning and plonked himself right on top of me. I had to shove him over so that I didn't lose feeling in my legs. I think my favorite part about the cooler weather is extra snuggles from the furkids. It doesn't get too cold here though - we are more at the 'baking heat' end of the weather spectrum. I am glad that the 'baking heat' is abating.

Wordless Wednesday - Greyhound Vampires

The Substance that Defeated Barbie's Iron Stomach

Sure, it wasn't you, was it, Princess?

The dogs always get something raw with kibble for dinner. I went to the shops last week, and they had chicken livers and chicken necks. I decided to get both even though the dogs hadn't had liver before. I put one liver each in their bowls, as well as 4 chicken necks and a cup of kibble. I fed Barbie in her crate as usual, and Bender in the kitchen/dining area as usual. I noticed Bender licked all the kibble off his chicken liver. He didn't think it was edible, so he left it in his bowl.

Barbie sauntered in and took the chicken liver from his bowl and ate it on her bed. She was keeping an eye on Bender all the time to make sure he wasn't going to attack her for taking it. She seemed to enjoy it very much.

The next day, I opened the front door and could smell something slightly bad. I thought I could smell the kitty tray, sometimes the house gets a bit musty and stinky when it is shut up all day. I let the dogs in, wheeled in my bike and then went to go to the bathroom, when I found a poo explosion. It was almost entirely liquid and was spattered on the walls. I was glad that she chose to do it in the bathroom - made it much easier to clean.

When I was cleaning it up, I thought, after having dogs having kids must be a breeze. For all the disgusting things dogs leave for you to clean up, kids cannot be much worse.

In other news, I made the following greyhound adoption PSA last night. It puts a couple of Barbie's tricks into use and I think is pretty cute. Hope you like it and feel free to share it.

Also, if you are after any copyright-free classical music, I found this awesome website called musopen. Check it out.

Greyhounds on TV

Todd McKenny is a singing, dancing guy who loves greyhounds. He went on TV recently to promote his musical "The Boy from Oz" but spent half the interview talking about his two beautiful greyhounds.

I can't embed the video but the link is here.

PS - The NSW law to exempt GAP greyhounds from wearing a muzzle has not actually been passed yet but the Government has expressed support. There is an election happening in NSW today and the current Labor government is going to be defeated by a large margin so I hope that doesn't delay the law change for too long.

The WA GAP newsletter gives the following update:

We took the opportunity to inform the WA Minister for Local Government and ask what progress was being made with the review of the Dog Act in WA.

The following response was received in March -

.a similar amendment to Section 33 of the Dog Act 1976 is also proposed for Western Australia. This amendment will provide flexibility to allow retired greyhounds that have successfully undertaken a retraining program to be exempt from the muzzling requirement.

To ensure that the current proposed amendments remain appropriate, early this year I intend to request Cabinet's approval to draft a Green Bill.

Bender the Tracker...

Trackwest had an open day today, and I took Bender along (with a bit of encouragement from Desma) to see how he would go. As it was just me, I laid the scent trails, and Desma and the other instructor handled Bender. Bender did awesome! He was fired up and he followed the scent well. It is so easy to boost his energy up that there really wasn't anything special I did. I just took his tyre and rope and played tug o war with him at the end.

We put the dogs away and had morning tea together. The vibe of the club is really lovely. There isn't any competition between members - people are just in it to learn how to read their dogs really. All of the dogs can track. Bender has a great attitude for it. At morning tea our instructor said that there were a couple of dogs in her group that could get their TD title in one season if we were committed to it. Bender was one of them.

Desma was really impressed with how he went, and kept comparing him to her dog Blake. Blake is a bully breed like Bender so they have some shared genetic heritage and a similar mindset. High energy, single minded and stubborn. I asked what Blake was like when he was younger - just like Bender, hyper. And when asked to do something, so enthusiastic. Sometimes too enthusiastic, but for Tracking - it sounds like you can't possibly be too enthusiastic!

One hurdle though is going to be teaching Bender to pick up the scent articles. He has been taught for 5 years he's not allowed to pick up socks and other random bits of clothing, and now I have to teach him it's OK again. May not be easy with Bender considering how he consolidates what he has learned into very solid habits.

When I took Bender out I was very impressed with Barbie and how she handled herself. She did not howl. She merely gave me a pleading look as I left out of the front door. I think it's good that the dogs are used to doing things separately now. They have just accepted that is the way things are.

The cats always get left behind, so the dogs should be used to it too by now. When I got home, Barbie sang a little more than usual and gave Bender the third degree. Bender was pretty tired after doing 4 simple tracks to find me.

I took Barbie out to the river where we met two other greyhounds as soon as we got out of the car. One was a 12 year old lady, blue and white. She was off leash and came trotting over to us straight away. The guy had a black one on a leash - he was the foster so wasn't allowed off leash yet. He didn't have either of them muzzled though. I only muzzle Barbie when I let her off leash at Riverside Gardens so they got to meet each other without dealing with the face cage.

Barbie and the old lady said hello and then Barbie started waddling a bit - she needed to go to the toilet but didn't want to do it with these two greyhounds and their owner so close by, so I took her for a walk on the grass so she could go.

We went down to the water after that, and Barbie sat in it to cool down. I put the muzzle on and took her leash off and she laid down in the water. She did run a little but her recall was immediate and fast. She didn't stray very far away. Then she found a young mastiff x girl to play with. They chased each other around a bit, and even the 12 year old greyhound joined in. The mastiff x had never met a dog faster than her before but she loved it. The chasing ended after their third go at it when they collided a bit too heavily for the mastiff's liking. She was a young 18 month old pup so a little concerned about the impact. They both came back to where we were standing and we had a good yarn about greyhounds and dogs in general.

Her recall was so good today that I called her off chasing another dog! I think she is ready to give agility another go soon too.

I am so committed to my dogs! I can't help it though, I love them so. If I didn't, I don't think I would have them.

Litchfield National Park & Darwin

So we spent the last 4 days in Darwin, and visited Litchfield National Park.

The highlights:

Friday night - catching up with a guy who I haven't seen since just after high school

Saturday - eating in a little Lebanese cafe and enjoying the breeze ahead of a storm, then going for a cruise with D & J in the 4x4 and going to Robin Falls... and smashing my knee on a rock... and seeing J's place and seeing his mum and sister and having a little catchup.

Sunday - Breakfast on Cullen Bay, watching the little fishies, getting a rental car and checking out Litchfield and Batchelor, dinner at a seafood restaurant on the sea, feeling the wind kick up as a storm blew in and eating awesome Red Emperor...

Monday - Breakfast at a random cafe in the city, visiting the museum and seeing Sweetheart the 780kg saltwater crocodile (who was accidentally killed when they were relocating him, so was stuffed and put on display), and the Cyclone Tracey exhibition.

The Northern parts of Australia have had a record breaking wet season, and the rainfall figures are something I find hard to comprehend being from an arid place like Perth. The rain is best illustrated by these waterfalls! (view these FULL SCREEN!)

Wangi Falls (Litchfield)

Tolmer Falls (Litchfield)

Now this one is for houndstooth because she likes street signs...

We're Baaack

Somewhat different report from the Kennel Guy this time. Bender was a bit jumpy with particular noises, but was mainly good. Bender is sometimes sensitive to noises and sometimes not, so I think it makes the guy a little confused about him. He has always been an inconsistient dog!

Barbie this time got LAZY written on her report card. She wanders around a bit, sniffs a bit, then goes back to sleep. Yep, she is now treating the kennel like home!

I've begun to consider putting them in a kennel for the 6 weeks we are in Europe instead of leaving them with a housesitter. I still want the kittehs to be housesat because they don't deal as well with being shoved into new environments, but if the dogs are in the kennels it means they have no chance to develop bad habits at home. It's always an option if we don't find the right person/people to look after the entire clan. The Kennel Guy said he had a couple of dogs stay with him for a whole year while their family went travelling, and it took the dogs a couple of minutes to recognise their owners when they came back!

I couldn't imagine leaving my pups for a whole year!

I will do a non-dog holiday post tonight - with some AMAZING waterfall footage :)

World's Greatest Shave & Slight Blog Hiatus

The before photo.....

Bender is a little dismayed with my new haircut.

After.

The money I raised is used by the Leukaemia Foundation to fund services to support patients and families living with leukaemias, lymphomas, myeloma and related blood disorders. All the services are free. My fundraising also funds blood cancer research to find better treatments and cures.

Donations can still be made by credit card if you want to sponsor me :)

You can do so by visiting my profile here before the 31 March 2011.

Also announcing a week long blog hiatus as I'll be going on a holiday! Will see you in a week! :)

Bender and Barbie hoop jumping

Bender is a great jumper, but we limit how much jumping he does these days because he tends to pull up sore in the wrists from an hour of running offleash fetching.. he did injure his right one jumping on the fence in our old house - we think he got his foot caught in some ivy on the way down and swelled up massively. We got it xrayed at the time and the vet couldn't see any damage, immobilised it for couple of weeks or so and it seemed to heal up OK. Anyway we are just looking out for him. In a few years he may not even get to do much off leash running unless he learns to slow down! Anyway, I decided I needed video of him jumping so that when he is older we can reminisce.

Barbie is a very confident and accurate jumper if she is moving at speed but not from a standing start. I think for her, all her spatial judgement and confidence comes at a minimum of 40kph!

Anyway, here they are having a bit of fun with a hula hoop.